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    Two Galaxies
    Two Galaxies
    Two Galaxies
    Ebook58 pages57 minutes

    Two Galaxies

    By Les Broad

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    About this ebook

    Science fiction has no limits except those of the writer's imagination. This trio of short stories is evidence that some sci-fi writers have very strange imaginations. The first story, 'Ogod's Enigma', tells of a happy planet ruled by the vastly overweight King Ogod. But all is not well, which is why the entire population is put into suspended animation until things get better. They do get better, but by then billions of years have passed, and the planet has drifted from one galaxy to another. Some people wonder why their blue sun has turned yellow, but that's insignificant set against the disappearance of Ogod and the imminence of a really disastrous day.
    In 'Alans!' readers are introduced to two simpletons living in England's West Country. These two talk in a peculiar accent, drink huge amounts of strong cider and discover a crop circle. When a visitor, even stranger than them, arrives some bizarre things happen leading to the disappearance of all three.
    'Firetower' is set on an unnamed, Earth-like planet where some cavemen live. Those cavemen speak in the confident, cut-glass tones of the English 1920s and lead a pleasantly ordered life. Then they meet an astronaut and mistake him for God.
    It's all very enjoyable, but the stories do poke fun at certain prejudices and obsessions. Nothing is meant to offend because these stories are just that – fun.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLes Broad
    Release dateAug 23, 2011
    ISBN9781465928405
    Two Galaxies
    Author

    Les Broad

    That picture isn't me. It's my much-loved Border Collie bitch, who I lost to a spinal tumour in April 2011. She deserves this memorial.I was born a very, very long time ago, very close to my mother in England. Now I live in Wales, which isn't England but is part of the UK. I've written all sorts of stuff, but mostly science fiction. It's sort of believable sci-fi - maybe it can't happen today, but might tomorrow, you know? The sci-fi novels are all on the theme of 'first contact' and the first one is being given away free. You'll have to pay for the others. Sorry.I've got other novels, short stories and things that are supposed to be funny too but whether they are is your decision, right?Some of the books are based on real incidents - I know they are, because they happened to me. There are five in total, I've released two, two are being tidied up and the last one won't be finished for a while yet. If you read one, remember it all happened to me and that I don't mind being laughed at. I'm used to it.A while back I released a free book, 'Top Of The Shop'. (If you're a writer you might want to read it. I'll say no more.) I've since released another one, 'Tea, Drums And Speed'. So now the first sci-fi novel is free, 'Top Of The Shop' is free, and there's a free volume of short stories. I must be mad, giving this stuff away. Mind you, it hasn't stopped me giving away a book of political thoughts. If you're from Wales, or British, or even interested in Welsh politics, it might be worth reading.There's also a free book about some films that appeal to me. You might find it interesting but I thought it would be a bit cheeky to want money for it. Have it on me.There's one little thing I don't understand. Of everything I've put on this site, I think the stories in 'Swift Shifts' are the funniest, yet it's the title that's looked at least often. Why is that, do you think?After a gap of several months I've now added a new three-story volume of funny stories. To balance this, there's a thoroughly miserrable one on its way!A word or two about my pricing strategy might be worthwhile. A lot of people on this site (and I apologise if I've got this wrong) quote prices that are just a bit cheaper than you'd see in a bookstore. I don't do that. Ebooks don't have production or distribution costs, so why should you, the book buyer, have to pay even a tiny share of something that doesn't exist? Isn't it better to spend, say, $3 on three little books than on just one? I want you to enjoy what I've written, and at a realistic cost to you that I can live with. Simple, isn't it?I'll add to this from time to time - there's no point saying everything at once, is there? You'd have no need to come back, would you?

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      Book preview

      Two Galaxies - Les Broad

      TWO GALAXIES

      (Several Planets And A Time-Span Beyond The Imagination)

      Les Broad

      Published by Les Broad at Smashwords

      Copyright 2010

      Discover other titles by Les Broad at Smashwords.com

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      In this little group of assorted stories there are none that are particularly sensible, but then they're not really supposed to be. They might, if you're lucky, make you smile or, if you're particularly easily pleased, laugh out loud. Be warned, though: you might find some of what follows a bit distressing but you have to remember to take this stuff in context, Then you can just be grateful you live in a civilised, well-ordered society.

      The first oddity, Ogod's Enigma: Strange Happenings In A Strange Place, will take you on a long, long journey to a distant galaxy. Some bits of it just might be more than a little familiar....

      Ogod's Enigma:

      Strange Happenings In A Strange Place

      In a galaxy known to the locals as Finoliola, a long way from where you are, really a very long way indeed, in fact so far that you can't even know it ever existed, there is – or was, according to legend circulating among the populations of those few other populated worlds nearby – a planet. It's quite a lot like yours, orbiting a sun that is much the same size as your own. That sun is quite a bit more blue than yours; you might conclude that the world that's like yours is cold but it is, when you actually measure it, a bit warmer than where you are. It's an interesting place, and for more reasons than just having a blue sun stuck quite a long way out from the middle of its galaxy, pretty much at the far end of one of the galaxy's longer spiral arms. It's an area known to the longer-established, space-faring civilisations nearer the centre of the galaxy as Finoliola's Arsehole.

      That planet, known to its inhabitants as 'Home', is a bit further away from its sun than might be declared to be ideal. In fact, from its surface the sun looks quite a bit smaller than you'd be used to seeing in your sky.

      It wasn't always so. A long time ago, when the most intelligent life form on your planet had two cells and no brain (and worked as a weathergirl on an obscure TV channel? No? Oh well, never mind), that planet, known as 'Home' to those who lived there, had a vibrant society living on its limited land area and the members of that society were outwardly similar to the oddly constructed person you call 'me'. They may not have been the greatest thinkers in the universe, but enjoyed and made full use of all the benefits of a warm and inviting homeland.

      It's worth taking a moment to establish why the land area was so limited, and it was so because about ninety five per cent of the surface was liquid. What was left was a sort of hourglass shaped (or, of you prefer, like the torso of a particularly fine specimen of womanhood) island, straddling the planetary equator, which was about a thousand miles long, five hundred miles at its widest and just a hundred miles across at its narrowest. It would have enjoyed a very pleasant, if rather damp, climate if only the planet had been tilted enough on its axis for the term 'climate' to have any meaning.

      At some point in the far distant past the creatures who lived their enjoyable lives on that perhaps idyllic island gradually came to realise a few things. Firstly they realised that it wasn't quite as warm as it used to be. They realised – or rather the scientific community worked out – why, too, and that there were two reasons. First, they, the scientists, worked out that the planet, 'Home', was moving ever so slowly further away from the sun. That came as a bit of a shock, but there was another one because they also calculated that the sun itself was cooling down and would, one day, go out completely.

      While the population at large was coming to terms with these seemingly inescapable facts,

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